Trick or Treat!!

[Jodo]

Don't judge me on the title, I haven't really been Trick or Treating. Another example of the creators of City of Heroes keeping it interesting, Friday night saw a Admin message go up stating that there was an Invasion going on, normally Admins inform you (in advance) when the servers are going down for upgrades and maintenance etc but this time it was all to do with a Story-line that NCSoft are doing just for Halloween.
Normally when you get sent on a mission you enter doors etc, if you aren't sent to that door it'll tell you that the door is locked, since permanent night came on Friday (ingame) you can now click on any door throughout the City and "Trick or Treat". If its a Treat you get a free Enhancement (power upgrade) or Inspiration (temp upgrades for Health, shields, accuracy etc). The Trick is a group of Halloween-specific bad-guys, Zombies, Witches, Strengs (pumpkinheaded stick-blokes, vampires), if you beat em you get the upgrade anyway. Cue loads of groups of Heroes running round kicking the crap out of these creatures, the big deal is these Pumpkings, they're huge for a start and are classed as being more than just Boss characters, they're Monsters. They're very rare and this is one just as I was about to fight with it.
Needless to say on my own I got *****-slapped, I did however heal myself and then took it on again with two others (a Blaster and a Defender (healer)), this time I performed the killing blast and felled it with a cracking Ice-blast.

It loses something in the story-telling but it was f00king fun.

Linkie to a pic on the Gallery (http://www.badacid.net/msc_publicgallerydisplay.php?iid=579)

[JonnyThunder]

Theres something very wrong about men in tights!

[Freeman]

Someone grab some water - there's an Ent on fire!

Superman could kick that tree-huggers ****. He could freeze its head and smash it, Terminator 2 style.

Rah!

[The Shiznit]

When is city of heroes out in the UK, it looks pretty cool.......
(Not that I like wearing tights at all!)

[Jodo]

It gets its UK European release on 17th November.

The problem is I'm listed as a European player on an American server, the version being released in just over 2 weeks time will create European Servers. According to PC-Gamer it will be possible for existing European players to "Port" their characters from the American servers to the Euro ones........thing is I won't be doing that. After playing this game since June I do believe that the Yank community is better than what will be formed on the Euro ones. I've never seen Racist remarks, no cheating, camping doesn't exist, and from this whole surreal "Trick or Treat" thing it shows how the community comes together, speaking from an Online point of view this weekend was fantastic, online gaming the way its meant to be.

It is possible to get a copy now and enlist on the Yank servers (smooth connectivity btw). You can create a free Account on City of Heroes Website (http://www.coh.com) , once you've set the account up you then purchase a serial code through your account. Once you have a serial-code (its listed in your account details so you never lose it) you download the game-client via your account page (instructions with how to burn it to two CD's included...if you want, you can dowload it over and over), I installed it straight from the downloaded files for my wife who bought hers over the net. Install, run, it'll patch quite a bit 'cause content is always being added. Go back to the site, buy some playing time (I think its £7 a month or something close to that, far cheaper than Star Wars: Galaxies). When you run the game enter you Username and Pass and you're on the go.

Its a shame that theres only two of us playing it, as a group in big fights etc it is a cracking game and even played for an hour you feel like you've achieved something.

[JonnyThunder]

No offense, but I reckon you'll be eating those words before long. Cheats are cheats the world over. As soon as someone figures it out - it'll be widespread. And lets not forget, the americans are usually the first to invent cheats.... it's not a british thing!

[Jodo]

No offense, but I reckon you'll be eating those words before long. Cheats are cheats the world over. As soon as someone figures it out - it'll be widespread. And lets not forget, the americans are usually the first to invent cheats.... it's not a british thing!

I have to disagree with that, there is an Add-on in the works called "City of Villains", rumour has it that when it gets going it will introduce Player versus Player. Its also rumoured that you don't have to get involved in the PvP if you don't want to and can carry on playing as it is now.....ie you versus the server. I get a lot of enjoyment out of playing it that way and as it stands at the moment I think its gonna stay that way for a fair while.

Cheat availability: I checked on one of the most "famous" (or is that infamous?) cheat-sites just after my first month to see if this game was gonna be like the rest of the online gaming and loand behold the forum that was supposed to be listing the cheats was devoid of content. I checked again only a few weeks ago and the forum for these cheats had been taken down, and that was what made my mind up to carry on playing it: its the only clean online game I've ever played.

As for cheats and who releases em, the Yanks might take credit for making em but they actually come from Germany, just like 80% of computer viruses.

I re-iterate my earlier remark: I'll stick with the Yanks.

[JonnyThunder]

If it makes ya happy, then yeah I agree. Cept, you should also remember that there aint cheats in UO yet either - it's been quite good (although im sure they are about)

I reckon though, that city of heros should be a free download. It's madness having to buy the game and the subscription time for it. If it were just the game price, i'd probably have bought it. But im a big NO NO for subscription games.

[Jodo]

I'm not gonna knock what you're saying but I've started to look at it a different way.
I always said I would never play (or pay for) Subscription games, I really came close to buying Star Wars: Galaxies but paying £40 for the game then £15 per month is way too steep, especially as its riddled with exploits in the monetary system (ingame). City of Heroes was always on my list to buy as soon as I read about it nearly twelve months ago, of course as soon as I saw "Subscription Fee" I changed me mind and decided against it. It wasn't until I spoke to a guy in Electonics Boutique in Florida that he basically said that instead of paying for a clan-server he now pays for that and gets more out of it. Looking at it in a "By the Numbers" way its either £20 or a little less for our server now for three months, or £21 for a constantly-patched and populated server for three months with no lag issues, no tw@tty anti-english players, no having peops speak another language to blank you out of the conversations etc. Far far better. At the end of the day its a geeks game, but at least no-one has any pretense why they're playing it. OK, I did see a player last week who played for all of ten minutes and then proclaimed "Peace out City of Zeroes, bye bye geeks", thats the fourth time since June that I've seen that and besides when he wrote that I just laughed. After all hes the one saying its a geeks game and yet he paid for it......Einsteins smarter brother..not.

[Freeman]

A well reasoned argument from the Jodo fella'.

I must admit I find certain aspects of the game appealing. The freedom of the city and the chance to team up and take-out the bad guys makes me wish a game like this was around when I was young - when I used to flood myself with comic books. Daredevil was the one for me. The recent film ruined the memory slightly but still ...

The idea of a monthly subscription is always a difficult one for me. I would do it if I really loved the game. If it was perfect for me then I'd do it without question. CoD I can do without question because:
(a) I love the game
(b) I love the chance to play competitively
(c) (Most important of all) I know that paying will better enable me to play with a thoroughly decent bunch of peeps.
So a server fee is more like a club membership fee to me ... and I part with the cash in a heartbeat.

But paying just to play one specific game is a little different. If BA were to do it en masse, then again I'd do it without thought. But having to acquaint myself with strangers again - whilst actually getting on with the business of playing the game - would be a little difficult because I'd always have in the back of my mind that I'm paying for the time with these new strangers - every second is metered.
Sure, part of the fun is getting to know these people in the first place! But that's an investment, with the monthly fee, that I only think I'd do if it's a game I know I'm gonna' love.
I don't think CoH is that game for me ... at least not where I am now.

However, I do think it's a very good game and I did give it thought. And I agree that, with the same situation, I'd probably stick to the Yank servers because those people take their superheroes seriously - Spiderman is a way of life - Marvel and DC are schisms of the same church!

But until something like Frontier: Elite IV or Warhammer 40K or (possibly) even Star Trek come up with a persistent online universe the wallet stays closed and the moths stay sleeping. UO is my 1st, 2nd and 3rd gaming slot for a long time to come. :)

[Hunter]

Elite 4 Yeah *****!

[Edgetiq]

Sounds like another EverQuest... that game had so many people commit suicide over it because people stole their "loot" thank god I deleted my character and over wrote it I was being sucked into it too much!! hence the name EverCrack.

So whats this game about Jodo?? is it fantasy or futuristic?

[Jodo]

Its an "MMORPG": Massively-multiplayer Online Role-Playing-Game. The game is based in a fictional city called Paragon City. The story is that Heroes were about during World War II, during WWII Paragon City was attacked directly by the Nazis, during more recent times the City gets invaded by Aliens (The Rikti), once they were beaten the story goes in the direction that the City is rebuilding but crime is rampant on the streets.

Thats where you (the player) comes in.

You design a Hero from the ground up. Give em an Origin:
Science (expermient or accident)
Technology (you enhanced yourself in some way)
Mutant (see X-Men)
Natural (The Epitome of Human Evolution)
Magic (needs no explanation)

You then pick a "Archetype"
Blaster (uses distance powers like Flames or Ice, or Electricity)
Defender (more of an emphasis on Healing or shields)
Controller (considered weak but has the Mind-control powers)
Scrapper (medium Armour but fights toe-to-toe, Wolverine Claws, Katana, Martial Arts etc)
Tanker (Emphasis on Armour but isn't quite as effective fighting as a Scrapper)

Of course then design the look for your hero, theres literally hundreds of thousands of characters to make, visually speaking.

Loads of Bad-guy groups and depending what Origin you pick will determine your main enemies in your storyline. As you get more experience you start to branch further and further out into the City which is split into Zones. Some beautiful maps and the Bad-guy controlled zones are hard work but frantic once fights get going.

Its a big game, not very deep in the way it doesn't take much thought but you do have to look at battles tactically, if you know what type of enemy you'll face you get enhancements to aid you depending on what type of enemy they are and what attacks you know they'll use.
Its ace in groups, and very rewarding when you just manage to beat the enemy with no health left, that was the point of this thread, beating the Pumpking was very gratifying as I was all out of Inspiration Power-ups and he karked it after my last shot.
It made my night anyway.

[Wraith]

Current Games:-
EverQuest
Anarchy Online

Dumped Horizons (two accounts) when they fecked up Land Ownership (basically they tore down my buildings- nm they took a *lot* of effort to build)

Dumped Dark Ages of Camelot because it simply got too boring.

===

When EverQuest 2 hits the streets- Ill be right in there..

===

Use to AD&D up until EQ came out... wonder if it shows (now where did I put my 12 sided dice?) - ahhh... thought it was hemeroids :)

[Freeman]

With a nick like Wraith it is a touch suggestive of a background in AD&D. At least it isn't Eberron or BogBeast or something. ;)
Do you mean the PC Game or the books?
Used to play Vampire and Werewolf when I was younger - the books that is. Was interesting for a while.

Used to play Planetarion and StarSphere. Got raped in Planetarion. Got big in one round of StarSphere - was quite senior in some old alliance ... errm, Aegus or something (can't remember). Was also one of the founding members of an alliance called CoD which went on to become the second biggest aliance of that round.

I like the idea of MMOG's - but not really roleplaying. My bro's well into Morrowind and the like; he loves all that sword and sorcery malarkey. I never quite got into it though. I like the idea of the swords but once you get all that magic and poncey blue flames pouncing out of some necromancers sleeve it just reminds me that it's a game. Swordplay - yes. Bows and arrows - yes. Bolt throwing Trebuchets - h.ell yes. Heal spells and Necronomicons - no thanks ...

I hear they're bringing out an MMOG for Star Trek next year - gonna' be quite big by all accounts. Not really a Trekker ... only ever liked Next Gen, the rest were really quite boring for me. But if Next Gen has a heavy weighting I might take a look - briefly.